You will fall in love with this crumb apricot cheesecake. Creamy cheesecake, topped with fresh apricot halves and encased in buttery crust. It tastes of summer!
Do you have a recipe you’ve made so many times you know it by heart? Better yet, was that recipe passed on to you by your mama? The one I am about to share with you is one of those recipes. The first time I made it I was in my early teens and since then I’ve made it hundreds of times…literally.
It was my mom and my “go to recipe” when there was only about half an hour between a phone call and guests appearing on our doorsteps. We made it so many times we used every kind of fruit filling possible. I thought we exhausted all the options but I was wrong.
Last Saturday morning I woke up with a strong urge to bake and I knew I was craving something Slavic. 🙂 That’s right it’s a thing. I made a dash to the closest Polish shop and picked up a pound of farmer’s cheese. It was a good start.
When I grabbed the closest to me cookbook an old, marked with food stains piece of paper fell out. I grinned widely when I picked it up. The precious sheet of paper contained a collection of our family’s favourite recipes typed up by my mom and sent to me when I left for college in America. Bingo! That’s exactly what I needed.
If you follow my blog you’d know that when it comes to recipes nothing is sacred to me. I love to change things up and what started out as my mom’s favourite recipe became highly experimental at some point of the process.
Needless to say, I was beyond pleased when I cut into my crumb apricot cheesecake (after hours of waiting for it to cool) and found out the risk payed off!
What my mom and I always made was essentially a seasonal fruit encased in rich and buttery pastry but somehow I ended up with a fruit cheesecake with a buttery crust and almond crumb topping. Pure luxury!
Have I convinced you that you too need my crumb apricot cheesecake in your life?
How to make Crumb Apricot Cheesecake
In the food processor combine flour, cold butter, sugar and baking powder, pulse until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs, add the egg and pulse until just combined. (This could also be easily done in a regular bowl with a pastry blender.)
Take the pastry out of the food processor, it will be soft. Pinch off 1/3 of the pastry, wrap it in a plastic wrap and put in the freezer. Wrap the rest in the plastic wrap as well and put this portion in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Now let’s take care of the filling. Cut your apricots in half and take pit out. Set aside. (I also planned to use the red and black currants at first but then changed my mind and that is why they are in the picture.)
Combine farmer’s cheese or cream cheese, eggs, sugar, semolina and vanilla bean seeds in a large bowl using a hand mixer until smooth or a food processor if you want your farmer’s cheese to be less grainy. ( I processed mine in the food processor for a silky consistency.)
When the pastry is finished chilling take it out of the fridge and roll it out to fit an 9″ springform pan lining the bottom and the sides all the way to the top.
Don’t worry if your pastry tears, just take the overhanging pieces and patch up the holes! That pastry is very pliable and forgiving. When your springform pan is lined all the way put it back in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Then take it out of the fridge and fill it with the cheese filling and top with apricots.
Now it’s time to get your crumb topping out of the freezer. In Russia this dessert is called “Tertiy Pirog”, which literally means “Grated Pastry.
This funny name comes from the top pastry being frozen and then grated directly on the filling with a vegetable grater like so.
I decided to toss my crumbs with ground almonds for an extra indulgence. Trim off your overhanging sides and press them gently in to blend with the crumb topping. When the pastry casing bakes it magically all blends together beautifully.
Put it in the preheated oven at 350F/180C and bake for 50 minutes or until golden. Cool it for an hour until cool to the touch and then chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 more hours to ensure the cheese filling in cooled completely. (Waiting for it was the hardest part for me. :-))
Dust with additional powdered sugar if desired and enjoy with a cup of tea!
Ingredients
For the pastry:
- Flour-2 1/2cups
- Butter- 1 cup/250 gr.
- Sugar- 1 cup
- Egg- 1
- Baking powder-1/2 tsp
For the filling:
- Apricots- 12
- Farmer's Cheese Tvorog/Cream Cheese- 500 gr/16 oz
- Eggs -2
- Sugar- 1 cup
- Semolina- 2 tbsp.
- Vanilla bean/Vanilla extract- seeds from 1 vanilla bean/ 1 tsp.
- Ground Almonds for the topping- 1/4 cup
Instructions
- In the food processor combine flour, cold butter, sugar and baking powder, pulse until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs, add the egg and pulse until just combined. (This could also be easily done in a regular bowl with a pastry blender.)
- Take the pastry out of the food processor, it will be soft. Pinch off 1/3 of the pastry, wrap it in a plastic wrap and put in the freezer. Wrap the rest in the plastic wrap as well and put this portion in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Cut your apricots in half and pit them. Set aside.
- Combine farmer's cheese or cream cheese, eggs, sugar, semolina and vanilla bean seeds in a large bowl using a hand mixer until smooth or a food processor if you want your farmer's cheese to be less grainy. ( I processed mine in the food processor for a silky consistency.)
- When the pastry is finished chilling take it out of the fridge and roll it out to fit an 9" springform pan lining the bottom and the sides all the way to the top. Don't worry if your pastry tears, just take the overhanging pieces and patch up the holes! When your springform pan is lined all the way put it back in the fridge for 20 minutes.
- Then take it out of the fridge and fill it with the cheese filling and top with apricots.
- Grate the the frozen part of the pastry with a vegetable grater and toss your crumbs with ground almonds (optional).
- Trim off your overhanging sides and press them gently in to blend with the crumb topping.
- Put it in the preheated oven at 350F/180C and bake for 50 minutes or until golden.
- Cool it for an hour until cool to the touch and then chill it in the refrigerator for at least 2 more hours to ensure the cheese filling in cooled completely.
If you make my crumb apricot cheesecake, make sure to tag @vikalinka in your photos, so I can see them! Are you following me on Instagram?
Maria says
September 9, 2019 at 5:58 amHi Julia,
Semolina for this recipe should be raw or cooked?
Thank you
Maria
vikalinka says
September 9, 2019 at 9:08 amRaw semolina here. Enjoy!
Maria Piro says
September 9, 2019 at 3:04 pmThank you! 😉
Molly Smith says
August 17, 2019 at 8:00 pmThis was delicious. I made it with figs, though, instead of apricots as that’s what was available at the store when I went. They didn’t cook down much, if I make it again with figs, I would slice them thinner. Also, I got a much smaller layer of cheesecake. I may increase by 50% the recipe for that portion next time (and I used cream cheese). Also, it took about 10-15 minutes longer to bake. However, the recipe is easy and delicious.
Annick says
July 20, 2017 at 6:51 pmHello,
Two questions: 1) can you make this in advance (say the day before) and keep it in the fridge? 2) Can I replace the regular sugar with a replacement (say stevia or something like that)? I want to make this cake for a team meeting and I have a collegue that doesn’t tolerate regular sugar.
Thnx
Annick
vikalinka says
July 20, 2017 at 9:17 pmHi Annick, you can definitely make a day in advance and keep it refrigerated. You can also substitute sugar but you would have to work out quantities based on package instructions as they are all different. I find Splenda tastes closest to sugar. Good luck! 🙂
Maedeh says
June 4, 2017 at 6:05 amHi
thank you for your recipe, I made it but after cooling, the crumb topping seprated from overhanging side 😞 what shoud I do to avoid this . if it is possible for you I would be glad to see your reply in my messages in instagram id 20_cuit 🙏🏻😊
vikalinka says
June 4, 2017 at 10:10 amHi Maedeh, I’ve never experienced that issue, so it’s difficult to know what exactly went wrong since I wasn’t in the kitchen with you. Perhaps your fruit was too wet?
Maedeh says
June 5, 2017 at 10:48 amHi vikslinka, at first thank yoy for your reply, what you mean that my fruits were wet? I used fresh apricots 😞I wish I could send you the pictures of my cook, maybe you could know better what the problem was.
vikalinka says
June 5, 2017 at 12:13 pmDid the sides of the crust come up to the top, Maedeh? If they did, the crumb topping should’ve become attached to the sides as the cheesecake baked. That crust is similar to a cookie crust, which expands when baking as opposed to a pie crust that shrinks. Have you made any adjustments to the recipe?
Maedeh says
June 5, 2017 at 12:44 pmI did exactly what ever you wrote on your recipe, first i poured crumb topping, then i trimed off overhanging side and attached to the topping, on oven it was so good but while cooling the top seprated from side
vikalinka says
June 6, 2017 at 7:01 amIt’s best to cool it completely while still in the pan. That way the cheesecake will keep the structural integrity.
Arti shah says
October 10, 2016 at 8:36 amInstead of apricot caj we use peaches
vikalinka says
October 10, 2016 at 5:07 pmAbsolutely, I am sure it will be delicious with peaches!
Marjorie says
August 15, 2016 at 4:26 pmThis was delicious!! I added fresh blueberries and used the food processor’s medium grating blade to grate the frozen dough. What a great idea for a cheese cake topping. Thanks for the fabulous recipe!!
vikalinka says
August 15, 2016 at 8:12 pmThrilled to hear you enjoyed it, Marjorie! I adore this recipe that’s been perfected by generations of women before me. 🙂
Alex says
June 7, 2016 at 10:08 pmHi! I made this cheesecake after weeks of procrastinating, but I’m so happy I finally did it! It’s delicious, and a great use of apricots! Although, during baking, the cake started leaking apricot juice, I believe, and smoked up my kitchen, but it turned out fine, though, so I’m very happy you posted this recipe. Thank you!
Ria says
July 20, 2015 at 4:47 pmMade it and loved it! We had the cake with friends and everybody enjoyed the taste.
The cake turded out really well – even without the eggs (my daughter is allergic).
It will be definetely a new favorite. Thank you for sharing!
vikalinka says
July 20, 2015 at 8:17 pmGreat to know that it tasted great even without the eggs! Thank you for sharing, Ria.
Aisha says
July 14, 2015 at 1:34 pmThank you so much for this recipe! It was delicious and the whole family loved it. Such a great way to incorporate apricots other than in a tart or cake 🙂
vikalinka says
July 14, 2015 at 2:50 pmYou are so welcome, Aisha. So pleased you enjoyed it.
Alia says
June 23, 2015 at 10:46 pmBrought it to work to share and there weren’t any left overs! I also substituted the semolina with rice flour. The dessert didn’t look as pretty as yours, but it tasted great!
vikalinka says
June 24, 2015 at 7:48 amSo glad to hear it was tasty, Alia!!
Alia says
June 23, 2015 at 12:45 amI made it gluten free: 1.5 cup coconut flour and 1 cup rice flour and it is delicious. Next time I am going to put more apricots. Thanks for sharing!
Deisy says
June 21, 2015 at 11:53 pmWhere can I purchase farmers cheese?
vikalinka says
June 22, 2015 at 6:52 pmIt depends where you live, Deisy. In the UK, where I am, you can buy it at Sainsbury’s, Tesco’s and independent Polish and other Eastern European shops under the name of Twarog or Tvorog or curd cheese. It’s called farmer’s cheese in North America and should be sold in all major supermarkets.
olga says
July 24, 2014 at 10:28 pmLooks deliciuos, i ran out of butter, could I substitute with oil?
vikalinka says
July 25, 2014 at 5:26 pmI wouldn’t use oil here as I think it will affect the texture, Olga, but if you are brave and willing to experiment you can try and let me know how it turns out! 🙂
Sharon says
June 9, 2014 at 8:31 amForgot to add a 5 ***** rating to my post!
Sharon says
June 9, 2014 at 8:29 amMade this cheesecake for the first time yesterday and our friends had nothing but praise and questions on the filling, richness of the pastry but most of all the grated pastry topping was the biggest hit (as suggested mixed with geated almonds). Thank you so much for sharing on Pintrest and I will certainly be trying many more of your recipes.
vikalinka says
June 9, 2014 at 4:08 pmOh that makes me so happy! Thank you for sharing that, Sharon!
Kate @ Diethood says
May 7, 2014 at 6:44 pmWOW! This is beyond beautiful!! I’d also like to have the entire thing all to myself! Also? I completely agree and understand those cravings for something from back home! 🙂
jessica says
April 22, 2014 at 10:05 pmNice!! I’m so trying this. Do I have to create a waterbath for the cheesecake? ?
vikalinka says
April 23, 2014 at 6:43 amNot for this one, Jessica. There is quite a bit of crust around it and you don’t want it to steam. 🙂
Tasha says
April 8, 2014 at 8:24 amCan u use can apricots?
vikalinka says
April 8, 2014 at 10:41 amOf course, you can use anything you like, Tasha. They will be different in texture, of course, a bit more mushy but if you don’t mind that, go for it! 🙂
Amber says
March 2, 2014 at 11:21 pmThis looks fantastic! I’m curious about the semolina though- do you mean semolina flour, and what is the purpose of the semolina in this recipe?
Amber says
March 2, 2014 at 11:22 pmCan semolina be substituted with another ingredient?
vikalinka says
March 3, 2014 at 9:59 amAmber, semolina and semolina flour are the same thing, it’s used in this recipe as a binding agent. You can substitute it with regular flour or leave it out all together, however, it gives the cheesecake a super smooth and silky texture.
redjanfan says
March 2, 2014 at 7:16 pmThis looks like a terrific recipe. May I say your photographs are incredible. You could be (an perhaps are) a professional food photographer!! Outstanding. Thank you for sharing.
vikalinka says
March 3, 2014 at 10:22 amOh thank you so much for your compliment. You are too kind. I am not a professional photographer, just dabbling in it for fun. 🙂
Susan says
February 25, 2014 at 10:29 pmHave you made this with blueberries or mangos?
What other fruits have you tried?
vikalinka says
February 25, 2014 at 10:39 pmSusan, you can make this cake with any fruit you like. It’s all about personal preference, just make sure it’s ripe. 🙂
Tanaya says
December 11, 2013 at 11:04 pmWow this looks gorgeous.. Planning to make it for my partner’s birthday 🙂
Lea @ Lea's Cooking says
September 23, 2013 at 7:30 pmWow! Not only does it looks stunning – it looks delicious too. Love apricots. 🙂
Vikalinka says
September 24, 2013 at 2:03 pmThank you, Leah! I love apricots too:-)
Vikalinka says
September 5, 2013 at 5:41 pmThank you! I am waiting for the heat to subside so I can make another one soon. 🙂
Sarah says
September 4, 2013 at 11:44 pmThis looks so, SO good! My Dad would love the fact that there’s crust on the bottom, sides and top! Bookmarking! 🙂
Vikalinka says
September 5, 2013 at 5:42 pmSarah, that’s my favourite part too. 🙂
huntfortheverybest says
September 4, 2013 at 2:52 pmwow that looks delicious!